Preparedness for when

paidinchickens

Double your dole, Eurocrats tell UK: Ministers told current handouts are 'manifestly inadequate'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2548377/Double-dole-Eurocrats-tell-UK-Ministers-told-current-handouts-manifestly-inadequate.html

How many people will be taking TPTB to court?

GreyQueen

paidinchickens wrote: »

Double your dole, Eurocrats tell UK: Ministers told current handouts are 'manifestly inadequate'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2548377/Double-dole-Eurocrats-tell-UK-Ministers-told-current-handouts-manifestly-inadequate.html

How many people will be taking TPTB to court?

There's an idea. It's always struck me as anomalous that the minimum level of support for a pensioner is so much higher than the minimum level of support for a non-pensioner.

However, the journalist is using out-dated figures for JSA (the over 25 rate is £71.70 and the under 25 rate is £56.80 and the rate quotes for ESA is only for the first 14 weeks, thereafter it can go up to just over £100 per week.

Still parlous. After paying what the State would pay for me (rent and council tax) I'm about £30 per week richer than someone on the dole.

paidinchickens

I was having a good old nose round a CS yesterday and overheard the cashier and the van driver having a conversation about the reason they both worked there was so they could keep their benefits.

They both work full time for their money and a petrified of losing it. The problem for them both is they got a job a few years ago then got made redundant which left them without money for weeks while they re applied for their benefits.

It is the fear of not having any money not getting a job and working for them two.

I can't see why it takes weeks to sort out as this seems to be the biggest deterrent for getting people back to work.

However there's a certain "type" of character who falls out of the probation office in town shouting "f um I ain't f in doing that f er" that gives everyone a bad name.

I think we will be having the rose tinted glasses version shoved down our throats until after the next election

PiC x

paidinchickens

We are trying to sort out pensions at the minute GQ they make it as clear as mud.

Several years ago they offered a great big carrot for those who changed onto the new format, luckily DH always has the attitude of "what's must be init for them" and stayed on his original plan. If he hadn't we would be up the creek now.

All going to hell in a hand cart as I see it but ours will probably have square wheels :rotfl:

pineapple

GreyQueen wrote: »

Soooo, with my hypothetical £22,500 I could 25+ ounces of pure gold, which would have zero counter-party risk of grubbyment default and which would be hidden from their grasping mitts for decades - it makes the risk of being burgled seem relatively slight, doesn't it?

I've wondered about this myself (for silver too) but am put off by the fact that like anything you pay a loaded price to get the 'new' product and of course if you are selling back to a dealer they buy back at a lower price. Possibly much lower. So my issue is this - can I (at my age) hold on to the gold long enough for it to rise enough in value to compensate for this? Of course we might get to an era when gold coins take over as currency - but that's a big might.
But it seems there is plenty of advice on the net. I might take a look!

Rosemary_Jane

GreyQueen wrote: »

Playing again with the calculator (I know, you can go blind doing that), you'd have to enjoy 17.3 years of pension top-up at £1,300 p.a. to make back your £22,500 investment in Super Grabby Gubby Pension Bonds.

My pension age is present 67. I am expecting that to rise before I get there but let's assume it doesn't 67+17 = 84. And that's the break-even point, not getting ahead until 84+ years old.

Ah, don't forget it's index-linked; and not just to CPI. They've got that triple lock thingie to make it impossible to work out.

Just want to make sheeple say "that looks good, yes please".
It's obvious you're not a sheeple, GQ

RJ (who took her RNPFN money £16K and bought solar panels, so getting £1800+ per year, index linked, tax free; instead of the offered £235 pa fixed to start 10 years later) -a gamble of course that they won't cancel the feed-in-tarrif. (shrug, life's all a gamble)

jk0

GreyQueen wrote: »

Myself, I own the cheapest, most basic dumb phone and good luck to tracking my whereabouts via one of those.

You know that if even the cheapest phone is switched on, its location can be tracked by triangulating the base stations it connects to, don't you GQ?

pineapple

paidinchickens wrote: »

The problem for them both is they got a job a few years ago then got made redundant which left them without money for weeks while they re applied for their benefits.

It's a long time ago - maybe things have changed. But when I was in receipt of the old JSA I was registered with employment agencies which kept offering me short term work. It was sporadic - a week here, three weeks there... And of course you lost your entitlement while you were 'fully employed'. There was supposed to be a 'fast track' system to get you reinstated but in my case it didn't happen. It was a big stressful mess. You could be without money for weeks and sometimes I would get 2 letters on the same day with different decisions
In the end I started refusing very short term work - finally taking a punt on a 3 week contract that turned into 3 years.
Hopefully things are better now.

pineapple

jk0 wrote: »

You know that if even the cheapest phone is switched on, its location can be tracked by triangulating the base stations it connects to, don't you GQ?

Another good reason not to carry round a phone which is switched on. Personally I'm not convinced there aren't health implications so mine only comes out with me for emergencies and is switched off. Difficult for those who need to carry round a phone for work etc though.

VJsmum

paidinchickens wrote: »

We are trying to sort out pensions at the minute GQ they make it as clear as mud.

Several years ago they offered a great big carrot for those who changed onto the new format, luckily DH always has the attitude of "what's must be init for them" and stayed on his original plan. If he hadn't we would be up the creek now.

All going to hell in a hand cart as I see it but ours will probably have square wheels :rotfl:

We are a bit the same - pension stuff is soooo boring as well.

When my OH turned 50 he had about 25 years in a, by then, "frozen" pension. On turning 50 he could "liberate" it. We went through the most tedious hours of calculations and "what if" scenarios because, obviously, taking it so early meant a lower lump sum and monthly pay than leaving it in. Eventually we decided to take it and we bought an investment property (which has it's own risks but, touch wood, has been OK in the 4 years we've owned it) - a month after we took the money word came that all of those pensions would not pay out any more than we'd got - even if we'd left it there for 10 years we would not have got any more, whereas that has now been working for us for the last 4 years.

OH then decided to invest in a new pension (ironically with the seemingly up the spout HSBC) but got his calculator out again and realised that he'd have to live to be 80 before he got anything like payback, so we've stopped that now but where is the best place to invest? Only so much can go in an ISA, gold has to be kept securely etc.

I do realise it is a nice problem to have rather than not knowing where the next meal is coming from BTW and by no means take it for granted as I know what it's like not knowing how to pay the rent and choosing between food and heat or bus fare.